AN ALL-IMPORTANT SUBJECT.
“To everything there is a season.”—“A time to love.”—Eccles. iii. 1, 8.
f I were, this evening, to ask each of you, my dear girl friends, what subject occupies your thoughts most in regard to your future life, I wonder how many of you would even whisper the truth in my ear—if, indeed, you cared to trust me so far. You have trusted me in many things, and your confidences have been very precious to me; but they have caused me sorrow as well as joy: sorrow, since no human being can do more than lay bare the workings of one heart, the spiritual experience of one soul, the sensations, painful or otherwise, of one body, in order to help or advise others. We may all make guesses about our neighbours, but we can be sure of nothing outside ourselves.
Our object to-night is of almost universal interest amongst those who are girls to-day, but who will be the women, wives and mothers of future years. I know that there has been a great revolution in girl life and habits during the last few years. Girls have taken up new occupations, and are the rivals of, and competitors with, the other sex, in nearly every field of study and of work. Many girls live independent of home ties, and some, I hope not a very large number, scout the mention of that sweetest bond of all, which has subsisted ever since God created the first human pair.
Do not for a moment imagine that I, a woman who has lived long enough to note from its very beginning the wonderful educational improvement made by my sex, think lightly of it, or undervalue it. Far from this, I am proud of what girls are doing to-day, and every feminine triumph chronicled gives me a throb of pleasure and a sense of sympathy with the patient, self-denying worker, who has not only deserved success, but won it. I do not, however, sympathise with the minority amongst these intellectually gifted girls and women, who ignore home ties, because they work outside the home circle, and speak of the sacred names of wife and mother as if the duties pertaining to those who hear them were not to be contemplated from the heights to which they have attained. What I feel about feminine progress is this: Every bit of knowledge gained, every step made in manual dexterity, artistic perfection, or even professional skill, should trend towards the development of a nobler being, better equipped for every womanly duty than were the women of preceding generations. Ay, and more ready and willing to do it with all the added charm that refinement and culture can give to what nature bestowed in the first instance.
Since girls and women outnumber men, there will doubtless be a pretty strong contingent, amongst the most scholarly girls, who will not marry.
Experience has already proved this to some extent. But, after all, human nature is stronger than reason, and will assert itself in unexpected ways, to the confusion of every learned argument.
Feminine independence is apt to lose its value, and the right to stand, in every sense, on the same level and platform with the man is soon waived, when the true love of a true heart is offered together with the strong arm to learn on and to give protection in time of need.